Outbreaks of tuberculosis caused a vampire scare in 1892 when a full family contracted the disease; while most of her family's bodies decomposed, Mercy's body seemed to be frozen in time, making people suspect her to be a vampire. While it was obviously superstition, the legend persisted.
The Mercy Brown vampire incident occurred in Rhode Island, US, in 1892. It is one of the best-documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse